The Empress’s Statue, and John Deposed Again

Not long after these events, the silver statue of the empress, which can still be seen south of the church, opposite the great council chamber, was set up on a column of porphyry on a high platform. The event was celebrated there with applause and popular shows of dancers and mimes, as was the custom then when statues of the emperors were set up. In a public sermon to the people, John charged that these proceedings brought dishonor on the church. This remark brought her old grievances back to the empress’s mind, and she was so angered by the insult that she resolved to call another council. John did not give way, but added fuel to her anger by speaking against her still more openly in the church. It was at this time that he gave the famous sermon that begins with the words: “Herodias is enraged again; again she dances; again she seeks to have the head of John in a dish.” [a]

Soon afterward several bishops arrived at Constantinople, among them Leontius, bishop of Ancyra, and Acacius, bishop of Beroea. The feast of our Lord’s Nativity was then near. Instead of going to the church as usual, the emperor sent word to John that he could not hold communion with him until he had cleared himself of the charges. John replied with spirit that he was ready to prove his innocence; and this so frightened his accusers that they did not dare to press the charges. The judges decided that, since he had once been deposed, he ought not to be given a second trial. But they called on John to defend himself on this one point only: that after he had been deposed, he had sat on the bishop’s throne before a synod had restored him. In his defense he appealed to the decision of the bishops who had held communion with him after the council of “The Oak.” The judges set this argument aside, on the plea that those who had held communion with John were fewer in number than those who had deposed him, and that a canon was in force by which he stood condemned. On this pretext, then, they deposed him, although the law in question had been made by heretics. For the Arians, after taking advantage of various slanders to drive Athanasius out of the church of Alexandria, made this law because they feared a change in public affairs; they were working to keep the decisions against him from being examined again. [c]